When you think of Australian cuisine, Outback Steakhouse might be the first thing that springs to mind. While there’s nothing wrong with Outback (because bloomin’ onion!), there’s so much more to the Australian dining story. Food culture in Australia is on fire right now, becoming ever more sophisticated, innovative, distinctive and diverse and rightly claiming its place among the greats on the stage of international culinary destinations.

And like its food, dining Down Under has its own distinct flavor and might be different than what you’re used to back home. To get a fair dinkum Aussie restaurant experience, we recommend you come prepared. We spoke to some of the country’s most prestigious restaurateurs for the inside dish on Australian restaurant etiquette.

Sharing dishes is a massive trend.

Asian, Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Latin American, native — you name the cuisine and an Australian restaurant will find a way to break it down into shared plates so that everyone can sample across the menu. “When we first opened Chin Chin in Melbourne in 2011, we were probably the leaders to do multiple-course sharing-style dinners in Australia, where everything is plonked down in the middle of the table to share,” says Ben James, group venue manager of The Lucas Group (which also owns Melbourne’s Baby and Kong). “Now everyone seems to be following suit. It’s pretty well commonplace now.”

Casual but neat attire is the baseline.

Australians are very laid-back by nature but don’t be fooled – we’re not slobs. “At Quay, we have a very strong policy on clothing,” says John Fink, creative director of The Fink Group (owners of much-lauded Sydney restaurants Quay, Bennelong, and Otto Ristorante). “If you turn up in tracky daks [i.e. sweatpants], a pair of thongs [flip flops], and a t-shirt, we’ll ask you to go back to your hotel room and get changed. At Bennelong, there isn’t a policy per se, but if someone turned up in an old pair of shorts and a singlet [tank top] we might say, ‘Aw, mate, do you mind?’”

Australian wait staff act more like your mate than your server.

“We’re quite informal,” says Timmeon Parlane, general manager of Cafe Sydney. “We’re always told by our American guests that they really enjoy our casualness and directness and the easy rapport. The relationship between our staff and the customer is much friendlier than in other countries — while we’re quite aware of who is paying the bill, it’s very egalitarian.”

Learn the Australian menu sequence: the entrée comes first, followed by the main course and dessert.

And, in Australia, a salad is served with the main course, not as an entrée. “This can be confusing for our American customers,” admits Parlane. “People often try to use the terminology that they use at home or expect things to be done the same way, and that can make it a bit difficult to get the communication flowing nicely.”

Tasting your wine before it’s poured is seen as kind of silly.

“Almost ninety percent of bottles from here are screw caps,” says Steve Scott, senior operations manager at the Seagrass Hospitality Group (owners of The Meat & Wine Co, Ribs & Burgers, Hunter & Barrel, and Butcher and the Farmer, all located in Sydney). “So it does seem a bit pretentious when you’re not doing the full cork service. Most Australians wave that part off, and say, ‘Just pour.’”

Alcohol serves are very precise.

When you order wine by the glass, you might be surprised when your server pours out an amount that, by U.S. standards at least, looks a bit stingy. “The standard pour is one-hundred and fifty milliliters, and that is a legality in Australia,” explains Steve Scott. “Anyone who works in hospitality here must take a course about the R.S.A. [responsible service of alcohol]; you can’t work in a restaurant unless you have that certificate. And if you serve your guests anything other than the standard pour, you’re legally obligated to tell them.” The drink driving laws are seriously stringent in Australia, too; you’ve been warned.

I like to order a bottle of wine (or two!) when dining out. The wines I order tend to hover around the $200 or less mark. I often wonder, though, if you order a super-spendy bottle of wine, do you — or should you — calculate your 20% tip on the total, even though it takes roughly the same level of service to pour a $100 bottle of wine as it does a $1,000 bottle? Share your thoughts in our poll.

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Caroline Potter is the Chief Dining Officer for OpenTable, Inc. She’s a dining trend-spotter and an OpenTable VIP, who dines out more than she eats in and has accrued more than 10,000 Dining Rewards points. Caroline started working in restaurants as a teen and she's since tackled every front-of-the-house job, from bartender and hostess to runner and server. She trained as a chef at Manhattan’s prestigious French Culinary Institute, cooking at L’Ecole. In addition to her role at OpenTable, she has written about food from farm to table for New York City’s famed Greenmarket and Edible Brooklyn and Edible East End magazines. Caroline is also a Certified Master Gardener.